Three electrotypes of a 16th-century Italian bronze door knocker, electroformed copper, patinated with copper sulphate to look like bronze, copied by Giovanni Franchi & Son, Clerkenwell, London, 1857

Electrotype door knockers (3) in electroformed copper, patinated with copper suplhate depciting two nymphs enbracing, terminating in scrolling foliage, with cupids on their shoulders and on each side, electroformed copper, patinated with copper suplhate, produced by Giovanni Franchi & Son of Clerkenwell, London in 1857, copied from a 16th-century bronze door knocker then in the Soulages Collection but now in the V&A.

These electrotype door knockers were bought by the Museum in 1857 from Giovanni Franchi & Son of Clekenwell, London. Electrotype copies were used as design aids for artists, artisans and students in the government schools of design which were run under the aegis of the Department of Science and Art.

As electrotypes the door knockers are an example of a 19th-century design model. Electrotypes play a key role in helping us to understand the V&A in its earliest days. The Museum grew largely out of the Great Exhibition in 1851 and, under the guidance of Henry Cole, sought to arrest the perceived decline in British design. The Museum aimed, initially, to collect primarily 'modern manufactures' for the education of manufacturers, designers and the public, with a long-term goal of improving the quality and quantity of Britain's manufactured goods. Cole was also in charge of the Government Schools of Design, which he set about reforming. Cole passionately believed in the potential of both museums and the schools of design, to raise standards of taste.

The appointment of John Charles Robinson as curator of the Museum in 1853 heralded a slight wider in focus. Under Robinson and Cole historic works of art were seen as just as instructive as contemporary work. For Cole and Robinson, if historic works of art could not be acquired, copies were a perfectly viable alternative.

The aim of the Museum was to present a lesson in world ornament. The Museum bought electrotypes as part of its growing collection of reproductions. This collection enabled students to look closely at both modern and historic objects that were otherwise inaccessible. Electrotypes provided the same function as the Museum's collection of plaster casts. They sit alongside photography, invented around the same time, as the products of revolutionary new technology that enabled the reproduction of works of art to be made available to a wide audience. The relationship with photography is close. The electrotypes were not generally working copies. They were impressions of the outside surfaces of an object, in effect, 3-dimensional photographs.

Two of the museum's earliest and most celebrated photographers photographed the orginal door knocker which as reproductions had the same status as the electrotypes in serving as an artists' models. Charles Thurston Thompson, the world's first professional museum photograher, photographed the original in 1857 when it was still part of the private art collection of Charles Soulages. Isabel Agnes Cowper, Thurston Thompson's cousin and one of the first female professional photographers photographed it again before 1873 when it was used in an 'Illustrated Catalogue of Electrotype Reproductions from Originals in the South Kensington Museum'. The catalogue used photographic reproductions to advertise electrotype reproductions of original pieces in the museum. The door knocker featured on p. 5 where is was described as follows:

'About twenty-five or thirty years ago the magnificent knockers of which we have here a specimen were commnly to be seen in situ on the doors of Italian palaces. Ferrara in particular displayed a grand collection, the appearance of which harmonized admirably with the horse-rings, torch-stands, &c., which had long passed from the phase of utilitarian simplicity into that of artistic decoration. The precise meaning of the present mythologic group it would be difficult to trace; of the skill with which a graceful composition has been made to accord with the necessary shape of a knocker it is impossible to doubt.' The catalogue advertised electrotype reproductions of the knocker as 'Price, copper bronzed, £4'.

Electricity revolutionised research into depositing metals from solution to either form objects or coat them with a thin veneer. Patented by Elkington and Company of Birmingham in the 1840s, these techniques were the fulfilment of a century of research into the effects of electricity on metals. They were also the basis of the electrical revolution.

ELECTROPLATING: A negatively charged silver bar, suspended in a vat of potassium cyanide, deposited a coating of silver on a positively charged base metal (mostly copper, later nickel-silver) object immersed with it. Electroplated objects were fully formed in base metal before plating.

ELECTROGILDING exploited the same technique but used gold bars instead of silver. It was safer than traditional mercury gilding.

ELECTROFORMING transferred the metal deposits directly into moulds in the plating vats. When enough metal had been deposited to create a self-supporting object the mould was removed. Developed by Alexander Parkes, electroforms so accurately mirrored the moulds in which they were created that multiple copies could be created (ELECTROTYPES).

The Process

During the electrotyping process a mould was taken of the original object. The moulds were made from gutta percha or plaster. Gutta percha was a tree-resin from Malaysia that could be melted and poured onto an object, but would set hard and take a perfect impression. During cooling it could also be manipulated. When the mould set, it was removed from the original object and then lined with graphite or plumbago to make it conductive. This mould was then immersed in the plating vats for coating with copper.

For this electrotype, the sequence therefore runs as follows:

Separate moulds were taken of various parts of the original door knocker. In these, copper impressions were electroformed. These became 'type patterns'. The type patterns became the source for future moulds to be made to save going back to the original, which might be fragile or, in the case of objects in private or overseas collections, inaccessible. The copies were then electroformed in copper made from moulds made from the type patterns. The copper electrotypes were then patimnated with copper sulphate to make them look as if they are bronze. The final electrotype is therefore two stages removed from the original door knockers, but is still a highly accurate impression.

The Educational Role of Electrotyping

Early experiments in electroplating, often by amateur scientists using Elkington's home electroplating kits, involved coating fruit, flowers and animals in silver or gold "with the most perfect accuracy". They "retained all the characteristics of the specimens before their immersion" (Penny Magazine, 1844). The Art Journal enthused in same year, "The electrotypes are perfect; the finest lines, the most minute dots are as faithfully copied as the boldest objections."

Henry Cole, the first director of the South Kensington Museum (V&A), quickly grasped the educational potential of this new technique. He employed Elkington and Franchi & Son of Clerkenwell to take moulds of historic and modern objects in the Museum (at their own risk), create copies in copper and then electroplate them. These could be sold freely as reproductions, with a gold, silver or bronze finish, provided they bore the South Kensington Museum's official stamp. To avoid breaking English hallmarking laws, all marks were to be deleted from copies of silver objects. Copies were made of successful modern objects as well as historic works of art

Elkington's display of electrotypes at the 1867 Paris Exhibition proved extremely popular and prompted Cole to organise a convention at which 13 European princes agreed to make works of art available for copying. Representatives of Elkington and the V&A sent staff to Germany, Sweden, France, Denmark and Hungary. The most ambitious trip, to Moscow and St. Petersburg in 1880-81, secured copies of over 204 items from the Kremlin and the Hermitage, including the celebrated Jerningham Wine Cooler and much Elizabethan and Stuart silver sent as ambassadorial gifts to the Tsars. By 1920 the V&A held over 2000 electrotypes. Copies toured the country as part of the museum's educational programmes and were sold to the public and to museums and art schools.

Electrotyping as a Product of Industrialisation

Elkingtons were a commercial giant selling electrotypes for profit as well as instruction. A variety of finishes met a range of tastes and budgets. Electrotypes are also relics of 19th-century industrialisation and mass production. The process of electroplating and electrotyping favoured companies that could afford large factories and expensive technology. The power of the machinery and new technology now at the disposal of the silver industry encouraged modern mass production to develop. Electroplaters could create thousands of identical objects using a fraction of the amount of silver to create "a degree of mechanical finish it would be difficult to surpass" (Art Union, 1846). The focus of silver and silver product manufacture moved from London to the new factories of Birmingham and Sheffield.

Some smaller companies trying to keep pace with industrial change suffered. The large vats of potassium cyanide required spacious, well-ventilated factories. A report at the Great Exhibition claimed workers in smaller companies suffered blistered skin, headaches temporary blindness and nausea.

This combination of art education and mass production made electrotypes the perfect marriage of art and industry.

Electrotype copy made for the Departmnent of Science and Art

These electrotype door knockers were made for the Museum in 1857 by Giovanni Franchi & Son of Clekenwell, London. They are copies of a 16th-century bronze door knocker from Italy that at the time belonged to the private art collector, Charles Soulages. Eight years after the knocker was copied, the museum also acquired the original in the Soulages sale.

Electrotype copies were used as design aids for artists, artisans and students in the government schools of design which were run under the aegis of the Department of Science and Art. Electrotypes play a key role in helping us to understand the V&A in its earliest days. The Museum grew largely out of the Great Exhibition in 1851 and, under the guidance of Henry Cole, sought to arrest the perceived decline in British design and improve the quality and quantity of Britain's manufactured goods.

The Museum's collection was built to present a Victorian encyclopedia of world ornament. If historic works of art could not be acquired, copies were a perfectly viable alternative. This collection enabled students to look closely at both modern and historic objects that were otherwise inaccessible. Electrotypes provided the same function as the Museum's collection of plaster casts. They sit alongside photography, invented around the same time, as the products of revolutionary new technology that enabled the reproduction of works of art to be made available to a wide audience. The relationship with photography is close. The electrotypes were not generally working copies. They were impressions of the outside surfaces of an object, in effect, 3-dimensional photographs.

REPRO.1857-29